Anorexia shock as number of young girls admitted to hospital doubles in a decade

Concern: Girls as young as nine are being rushed to hospital seriously ill

The number of young girls admitted to hospital with anorexia has almost doubled in a decade, official figures revealed yesterday.

Children as young as nine are being rushed to hospital after becoming seriously ill by starving themselves almost to death because of their condition.

Around 1.1million people in Britain have an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia, but it is rare for them to be so ill that they end up in hospital.

But new figures show that the number of admissions among girls aged 16 and under jumped 80 per cent - from 256 in 1999/97 to 462 - in 2006/07.

A breakdown by age showed that girls aged 15 were admitted 141 times to hospitals in England in 2006/07 - almost double the 75 admitted the previous decade.

Shockingly, there were 18 admissions among 11-year-olds, up from 11; and 10 admissions among 10-year-olds, up from nine.

Among under-10s there was a rise from one admission in 1996/97 to five in 2006/07.

The data, revealed in a parliamentary answer, also showed a jump among older girls.

Susan Ringwood, chief executive of the UK eating disorder charity, Beat, said the rise in admissions could be due to the fact girls were not getting treated early enough and were being left until they were very seriously ill.

She said: 'Our concern is that people are being made to wait until they get ill almost as a way of rationing the services that are available.

'We think these figures are very shocking. But we don't know, and the Government doesn't know because the data isn't collected, how many people have a diagnosis of an eating disorder.

'We can't tell if there's more people actually suffering from an eating disorder in the first place or whether it's just that more are getting admitted to hospital.

'We have done research that shows that very few people with an eating disorder get a good experience when they visit their doctor. There's a lot of people being told wait and see and come back again and they get very, very ill before they get any treatment.

'We think that's a real factor in the number of people being admitted. They are not getting proper treatment until the point they need to go to hospital. That's really part of the picture here.'

She said specialist services were excellent but there were far too few of them. There had been some increase in capacity in the private sector, which also treats NHS patients, but very little increase in direct NHS services.

Mrs Ringwood also said the implementation of guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) on eating disorders was 'far too patchy' across the NHS.

Today's data revealed that figures for bulimia were down, with 10 girls aged 16 and under admitted to hospital in 2006/07, less than the 26 in 1996/97.

A total of 93 girls were admitted for other types of eating disorders in 2006/07, down from 108 in 1996/97.

Conservative health spokesman Anne Milton said: 'These figures are shocking. We are failing to get across to young people today the dangers they face when they abuse food.

'At one end of the scale we have some frightening statistics on obesity and on the other end of the scale we have many people suffering from this tragic illness.

'Anorexia takes a terrible toll on those who suffer from it and on their families and friends. This is yet another example of the Government dropping the ball on mental health issues.'

Since Labour came to power, almost 3,000 girls aged 16 and under have been admitted to hospital with anorexia.

A total of 2,991 girls and 284 boys were admitted with anorexia since 1997/98; along with 116 girls and 14 boys with bulimia.

Another 924 girls and 673 boys have been admitted with other eating disorders.

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Anorexia shock as number of young girls admitted to hospital doubles in a decade